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- 23/06/2008: Transport Meeting at the Convention of The Left
- 06/06/2008: Working class people deserve a party to speak for them by Nick Wrack
- 03/06/2008: What is the true cost of Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan?
- 03/06/2008: John McDonnell MP: After Labour's electoral disaster - we need action on policies.
- 03/06/2008: Can Brown be beaten by John McDonnell’s Manifesto? by Mark Hoskisson
- 04/05/2008: First thoughts on the elections
- 17/04/2008: Towards The Convention of The Left: Progress so Far.
- 17/04/2008: The missing theme - trade unionsim at home and abroad
- 07/04/2008: What they're saying about the Convention of the Left
- 10/03/2008: A Socialist Vision of Health Care in a World Out of Balance
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Supporting blogs
The missing theme - trade unionsim at home and abroad
A theme on trade unionism and workplace organisation in the UK and internationally
As was pointed out at the ‘big’ meeting, there is a major gap in the themes of the Convention as there is nothing specifically aimed at trade unionists or taking up trade union issues other than privatisation in the UK and internationally. A theme on trade unionism could focus both on drawing together current experiences and on dealing with the major political issues facing trade unionists.
I suggest setting up another sub-group to work out a detailed plan with speakers etc and a meeting to get together those interested specifically in this area.Here are some ideas to kick around for possible sessions. These are only suggestions and obviously open to amendments, additions and deletions but I think they might form the basis for a viable, relevant and interesting stream.
Organising the unorganised:·
Young workers·
Migrant workers
Where now for the unions?:
Should the unions still support Labour?
Rank and file organisation-Shop stewards network/trades councils; union lefts
Current disputes / Public sector pay freeze
International labour:
Solidarity with Iraqi & Iranian trade unionists
Fighting sweatshop labour: union organisation worldwide
Chinese workers and the Olympics IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE INVOLVED, PLEASE CONTACT ME BY EMAIL AT:
BRUCE@BRUCEROB.EU
Comradely,Bruce Robinson
15/05/2008 at 04:04 pm
Certainly this is a very important theme and as I see it one of, if not the main, use of the Convention of the Left, is to connect, co-ordinate and organise rank and file trade unionists struggles.
On which there’s the strike in Bolton- went to a rally a couple of days back
Support Grows For Bolton Strike!
Nearly sixty people came to the rally, outside a governors’ meeting, against the Academy at Withins School, Bolton with strikers, parents, students and delegations from other schools and workplaces.
The mood was defiant and loud leaving governors in no doubt about the strength of feeling. Some governors came to the picket to discuss the issue and at least a couple of governors said they supported us. The main sponsors of the Academy were not brave enough to turn up though they sent a delegate and the good news is that the combination of the strike against a change of employer, the deluge of messages of support, the strong community campaign and media profile have already resulted in an announcement that the Academy proposal has been put back by two terms.
“This shows our strength,” said Phil Roberts, the NUT rep, “but we’re not letting up at all until we have secured a complete victory. If anything support for the campaign and the strike is growing!
We’ve had messages of support from Devonshire to Newcastle and school reps on the phone from other places threatened with Academy status to see if they can try a similar strike against change of employer. The support is really appreciated- please keep it coming in and sending in the petitions. It’s like the whole country’s looking to us to win and supporting us!”
Protestors, who included members of Unison and NASUWT, as well as a good delegation of students and parents shouted, “Our School’s Not For Sale!” and discussed ways forward. The NUT group meets tomorrow to plan the next day of strike action and Unison members are also meeting to decide whether to join the strike or not.
At one point it looked like the police were sending reinforcements to perhaps move us on but the mood was resolute with chants of “Power to the poeple!” and “United front! Shoulder to shoulder!”
The rally was a great success and shows some of the support. “All the students support this campaign,” said one, “and want to stay as Withins not some private Academy! Some of us have even been threatened with disciplinary measures for supporting the strike and joining the strike picket but it would really kick off if they tried anything!”
“We definitely think we can win,” added a striker, “this school is our school and we’re going to fight. We’ve been campaigning for over a year and saw off another bidder but this strike has really escalated it. it’s really important people keep supporting us and perhaps other NUT groups could have similar actions. It’s about time we took a stand!”
The rally ended with some speeches and determination to carry on the strike until all threats have been seen off.
This is obviously a very important strike and shows the way forward for organising in schools, taking action over class size, workload, any other issues and bombarding union leaders with the demand for a national ballot for discontinuous (ongoing preferably escalating) strike action over all these issues and pay.
Support for struggles like the Bolton strike should be used to begin to organise a network of activists to ensure rank and file control of struggles and the need for ordinary members to get organised to pressure our leaders to take the action we need and get organised at the rank and file level to take action ourselves where we can. Victory to the Bolton strike! For national ballot as soon as possible!
E-mail messages of support to Bolton NUT conwaycoltman @yahoo.com
Download petition here
Get school, college groups and local divisions to pass motions demanding an immediate ballot, perhaps using Bolton NUT motion as a basis
02/06/2008 at 08:15 pm
Where now for the unions indeed! Political representation is a vital issue, but industrial organisation even more so. The (Unite) T&G’s recruiting of 100 new green field organisers on the SEIU model seems to have run into the buffers. (Unite) Amicus are forging ahead with an international union by uniting with the US steelworkers - but how will this increase their bargaining power if their organisation remains unchanged. UNISON are stuttering towards having more organisers and looking at their structures, but face low union density even in many public sector employers. The GMB are strapped for cash.
All unions struggle to take large scale industrial action in an environment of anti-union laws. Some want to ‘re-build britain’, but the industrial working class is in terminal decline as traditional working class jobs are exported to parts of the world where labour is so cheap that western workers can never compete in the long run. Britains working class is white collar and in the service industries - how should our organising change to represent this growing part of our class? How do we properly organise internationally? The ‘union ideas network’ website is a start in thinking about this, but what should we say from the LEFT!?
Rank and file organisation-Shop stewards network/trades councils; union lefts
Current disputes / Public sector pay freeze
07/06/2008 at 02:07 pm
Simon.
“The (Unite) T&G’s recruiting of 100 new green field organisers on the SEIU model seems to have run into the buffers.”
The TGWU section of Unite currently employ 102 Organisers and are active in a numbers of industrial sectors. Successes can be judged on the TGWU website.
There are more positives than negatives I feel but there is still an awful long way to go. I hope the Convention can give direction for the left in how to work in Trade Unions and more importantly how to organise in the workplace, something I feel has been lacking from all left groups with exceptions being in the minority.